Recommend A… Contemporary Book

I’m always looking for books to recommend, whether they’re for different moods or wants, maybe different time frames or settings… Luckily, Chick Loves Lit has created the PERFECT meme for this! Each week she asks us to recommend a different book that features a different topic.

This week is recommend a Contemporary Book.

I’m not a HUGE fan of contemporary books. And I don’t mean I don’t like them; they’re just not my go-to books when I’m in need of some reading entertainment. I tend to like my stories on the paranormal, fantastical side.

Because of this I think I’m a little more picky about the contemporary books I read. I try to steer clear of ones that are overly cutesy or gimmicky, like something that could easily transfer to the Disney Channel’s Movie of the Week.

At the same time, I try to stay away from contemporaries that deal with heavy subjects like rape, drugs, suicide, etc. There’s enough outlets to get exposed to that kind of bad stuff. Don’t need books to be one of them for me.

All this being said, sometimes I break away from my “rules” and pick up a contemporary that deals with some of these things and am pleasantly shocked to find that they’re so much more than I originally thought.

There are two books in particular are fantastic contemporaries that I’m sure you’re going to see on EVERYONE’S list today:

The Sky is Everywhere – I actually picked this one up thanks to a book agent who’s blog I used to follow. She had written about it and how fantastic it was, so I decided to give it a go. I thought the concept was cute – girl who writes poetry on stuff, who is a band geek, who falls in love with a boy. I didn’t really think too much about the death aspect and the sense of loss. I was mostly expecting a good story about a girl. Boy, was I sucker punched! It had all the elements I was expecting, but there were so many conflicting emotions all over the place! Should I be happy when my sister is dead? Should I feel this way about a boy? Etc., Etc., Etc.

Anna and the French Kiss  – This is one of those happy little contemporaries that made me think it was just cute and fluffy and sweet and I’d go around singing tralalalala while bluebirds and squirrels twittered the day away. Yeah…. not so much. Don’t get me wrong: it was totally cute and fluffy and sweet, but there was so much more to it! This book made me remember what it was like to be happy, in that 17 and in first love kind of way. It made me want to hug my BGFF before kissing the hell outta him (ahem). It broke my heart a little right before it ran to the medicine cabinet, got a Strawberry Shortcake Band-aid out, gently put it on the break and gave it a little kiss to make it all better. Sure, Anna and the French Kiss isn’t a life-shattering book that will make you think differently about the world, but any book that can strike such a sweet chord with you is worth checking out.